The Two-Way

11:38 am

Tue June 5, 2012

In Poll, Facebook Users Say They Are Not Swayed By Its Advertisements

It's more bad news for Facebook today. A poll by Reuters/Ipsos found that most of its users are not swayed by its advertisements.

Four out of five users surveyed said they had never bought a product based on advertising they saw on the network. What's more, the online poll revealed that "34 percent of Facebook users surveyed were spending less time on the website than six months ago, whereas only 20 percent were spending more."

"The findings underscore investors' worries about Facebook's money-making abilities that have pushed the stock down 29 percent since its initial public offering last month, reducing its market value by $30 billion to roughly $74 billion.

"About 44 percent of respondents said the market debut, seen by investors as troubled, has made them less favorable toward Facebook, according to the survey. In the May 31-June 4 poll of 1,032 Americans, 21 percent said they had no Facebook account."

If you've been following the Facebook news, you probably had the inkling that this was expected. Right before the social network went public, General Motors said it was pulling its ads. GM spent about $10 million on Facebook ads and The Wall Street Journal reported that automaker's marketing team made the decision after questioning the effectiveness of advertising on Facebook.

Facebook shares started the morning trading in positive territory, but at the moment shares are down 61 cents or a little over 2 percent. Priced at $26.28, the stock has lost a little less than a third of its initial value of $38.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.